UM students to experiment with future Ford Sync system applications

Ford Motor Co. has partnered with the University of Michigan's College of Engineering's department of electrical engineering and computer science to create software for future generations of its Sync system.
The joint research project, dubbed “American Journey 2.0,” offers students the opportunity to develop, beta test and program open-source applications based around the concept of in-car connectivity.
“We're giving students the opportunity to develop applications that will be relevant to the usability of the driver, not a passenger in our vehicles,” said Venkatesh Prasad, group and technical leader of Ford's infotronics team in research and advanced engineering. “What better way to invent the future than to use students who are living for the future and really represent our lead users.”
Graduate honors students began using the research prototype, trying to find ways to improve its capabilities, said Brian Noble, associate professor at UM.
The university is offering a winter 2010 semester course for students to develop and design software for the research project.
Noble said 25-30 students will be enrolled in the course.
“We're going to hand them this platform and say, ‘build us something really impressive,' ” he said. “This project has a high reality quotient, we're connecting our students to a real industrial problem and that's exciting.”
Noble expects students to create applications that will track users' driving habits and offer them gas mileage tips, as well as social networking applications, revolutionizing the way people use their vehicle.
The current Sync system already features technologies like data-over-voice, GPS and a text-to-speech engine. The Ford-UM research project is designed to connect the driver with social networking capabilities and other Web 2.0 functions.
“Research like this pushes the envelope of current technology and helps us identify and solve the next set of challenges in the evolving arena of vehicle connectivity,” said Jason Flinn, associate professor at UM, in a press statement. “What excites me about this project is that it gives out students the opportunity to unleash their creativity using cutting-edge technologies that connect the vehicle and the ‘cloud.' ”
Prasad's advanced engineering team develops future platforms, five to ten years from commercial application, but elements of the students work could make it into Ford products sooner, he said.
Teams within the winter course will design their own application that will be judged by Ford and university judges at the end of the semester.
The winning team's application will then be installed into a Ford Fiesta for the team to take to the 2010 Maker Faire, the world's largest do-it-yourself convention, on May 30 and 31 in San Francisco.
The winning team will, likely, be documenting their trip using some of the in-car connectivity they helped develop, Noble said.
“I think the students will come up with something really forward thinking,” Noble said. “It's certainly going to be interesting.”